


Of Belt Grabs and Bumpy Roads

by SabbyStarlight



Series: Cold Open Challenge 2020! [1]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Bromance, Brotherly Banter, Cold Open Challenge, Episode: s01e02 Metal Saw, Flashbacks to the DXS days, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mac Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:20:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25109893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SabbyStarlight/pseuds/SabbyStarlight
Summary: Day one of the Cold Open Challenge!1x02 Metal SawAlso known as the origin story of Jack grabbing Mac's belt.
Series: Cold Open Challenge 2020! [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1818619
Comments: 23
Kudos: 69





	Of Belt Grabs and Bumpy Roads

**Still not home**

**Unless you call this holding cell home**

**Waiting on Thornton to get our release approved...**

"Man," Jack groaned, kicking his legs out in front of him in an attempt to stretch without moving from the low bench they were sitting on. The heels of his boots left scuff marks on the dusty floor. "How long have we been stuck here? Shouldn't Patty have worked her magic by now?"

"It hasn't even been two hours," Mac replied with a smile, checking his watch to be sure. "Give her some time, she hasn't forgotten about us."

"Probably intentionally makin' us wait," Jack mumbled, crossing his arms, knowing that his annoyed shifting would only raise suspicions, make them appear guilty to their captors, but he had never been good at sitting still. "Decided to let us sit in here and squirm for a while for cuttin' our audio connection back there on the road."

"She wouldn't do that," Mac shook his head for a moment before realizing that Jack's accusation might not have been as far-fetched as he first thought, head turning to look at Jack so fast his hair flew even further out of place at the movement. "Would she?"

"Naw," Jack assured with an easy grin, hoping he wasn't lying. "Not when you're in here too. If it was just me? Well, I might be stuck here for a few days. But she won't make you suffer for my sake, she actually likes you."

Mac smiled. "Even if she does, we've lasted longer in way worse places than this."

"True, true," Jack agreed, looking around at the small cell they had been led to and asked to wait in. It most definitely was not the worst place they had spent the night, or week, but hopefully it wouldn't come to that. "But don't worry 'bout it. We'll be out of here in no time."

"This one went a little off the rails, didn't it?" Mac sighed. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Jack repeated as he brushed off Mac's guilt. "Despite what I might have said in the heat of the moment back there, this wasn't on you. Missions go south all the time, we should be used to that by now."

"Well, thanks for having my back," Mac leaned over enough that he could bump his shoulder into Jack's.

"Always," Jack promised as he reciprocated the shoulder bump. "This time it was just literally. Though I do wish you'd stop with that whole leaning out of a moving car window stunt. One of these days I'm gonna need a hand on the wheel and a hand to shoot with and then who's gonna be there grabbing onto your belt to keep you from taking a tumble, huh? You just planning on me being flexible enough to drive with my knees?"

"Ideally, I wouldn't go falling out of a window, with or without you holding on to my belt, and you could keep both hands on the wheel."

"Yeah," Jack rolled his eyes. "Cause we all remember how well that worked out the last time..."

**Undisclosed DXS mission in Burkina Faso**

**2014.**

**Running, well, technically driving, for our lives again.**

"Why?" Jack peeled his eyes off the road in front of him for a moment, searching for a look in the rearview mirror and growling in frustration. It was limply hanging from the windshield, swaying with the motion of the truck he was driving. Apparently Mac had needed the screws securing it in place to finish making... whatever it was he was making. "Why are they following us, Mac? How actually would be a better question, now that I think about it. You said you disabled all their vehicles!" He held the mirror into its proper position for a moment, getting a look at the team of ATV's following them.

"Technically," Mac corrected, "I said I thought I disabled all of them. I got the ones in the driveway and the garage. Those must have been stored in the shed."

"You didn't check the shed?" Jack exclaimed. "That's where people keep all their junk, kid! Any other day that would have been the first place you went runnin' to. Needing to see what kind of random crap you can work your magic on to make us jetpacks or something! And you pick today of all days not to check the shed?"

"Calm down, I have a whole pocket full of the disablers Nikki rigged up before we left, all I've got to do is get them within a foot of each of the engines and keep them there for ten seconds and the motors will shut off. Just need to weigh them down enough to make them stay in place since I can’t zip tie these ones."

"A foot," Jack laughed at the absurdity. "Is that all? Just a foot? How exactly do you plan on doin' that, genius? Cause once you turn those little doohickeys on and they shut off any runnin' car within a foot, we're kinda screwed seein' as how we're not only inside a vehicle of our own, but we're relyin' on this old truck getting us to our exfil before the pilot gets tired of waiting and takes off towards home without us!"

Mac shot him a smile, eyes wild with the rush that only came from being in the middle of one of his crazy plans and not knowing if it was going to play out in his favor, and began rolling down his window. "Guess I'll just have to throw them."

"Oh, is that all?" Jack breathed a sigh towards the falling-down headliner of the truck's interior. "You just gonna toss 'em out the window there and hope for the best? You know your aim sucks, right? Darts, cornhole, I beat your ass every time. And you think you can get that tiny little hunk of metal to land on a moving target, while you're moving too?"

"I mean, we can stop and switch places if you want," Mac offered with a shrug. "It's not like they're going to shoot us if they catch up, why not go and unnecessarily up the difficulty level?"

"Just... be careful."

"Where's the fun in that?" Mac sent him a wink before twisting around in his seat and grabbed the top of the open window, pulling himself out far enough to sit, balanced precariously, with only his legs inside the cab of the truck.

"Don't you dare get shot!" Jack yelled, hoping his voice carried enough for Mac to hear him as he tried to ease the truck through a bend in the rode gently so Mac wouldn't lose his balance.

The first device was a success, landing perfectly on the front of the closest ATV and within seconds of it connecting, there was only one bad guy left tailing them. Jack made the mistake of thinking that they might actually actually be able to pull Mac's latest halfway-thought-out plan off without a hitch when he glanced over and saw Mac scrambling to reach into the pocket of his jeans, digging for another disabler, though Jack knew for certain that there had been two in his hand when he climbed out of the truck. Which could only mean that he had missed on the second throw and after seeing what Mac had done to his partner's vehicle, the one left chasing them would be even more motivated to catch them.

"Mac? You good up there, bud?" He called, all of his earlier exaggerated frustration and teasing gone, replaced with nothing but genuine concern.

"Fine!" He called, though he didn't sound too certain. "Keep driving!"

The next sound Jack heard coming from his partner was, he was pretty sure, a mumbled curse word as the next attempt was a miss as well, but Jack decided against calling him out on it. The angry fist that connected with the roof of the truck was enough and Jack couldn't help but smile despite their perilous situation, thinking that maybe some of his bad habits had started to wear off on the kid. He was still grinning over that thought when Mac let out a sudden yelp. His hands scrambled against the top of the truck, nails scratching against smooth metal, unable to find purchase and Jack barely had time to turn his head to the side just in time to watch as Mac's legs slipped out the window. He wasn't fast enough to get a grip on the younger man's' boots as they too, followed out the window to land on the road below.

It happened in a matter of seconds, but Jack watched it play out as if it were in slow motion. Like someone had crawled into his bank of nightmare material, picked one of the worst things he could imagine happening, and replayed it at half speed in high def.

The next moments though, went by so fast that he barely registered them happening at all. It felt as if he was watching someone else, not himself, slam on the brakes and then throw the truck into reverse, slamming intentionally into the ATV whose driver still hadn't realized what was happening. The fight that broke out after was over before it really began. Jack didn't feel the impact of his fist connecting with the other man's jaw, only taking a moment to make sure he was knocked out cold and take his gun before running full speed down the road to where Mac had landed, preparing himself for the worst.

The instant wave of relief that washed over him as Mac pushed himself up to sitting when he heard Jack's approaching footsteps was replaced by overprotective anger. "Stop movin', what are you doing?" He scolded as he slid to a stop beside him, gravel flying from his heels, and crouching down beside Mac, feeling the rise of heat coming off the sun-scorched road. His heart stuttered for a moment when he saw the splash of blood staining the sleeve of Mac's grey buttondown but a closer inspection revealed that it appeared to be a case of road rash, and not nearly as bad of one as it could have been. "Just, stay still, okay? Lemme check you over. You alright? What happened back there, huh?"

Mac squinted up at him, blinking away drops of blood falling into his line of vision from the gash on his forehead. "Think I fell."

"You..." Jack sighed, running a stressed hand over his face, reminding himself that the last thing Mac needed was for him to lose his temper. "Yeah, bud, you fell. From a moving truck that I shouldn't have let you be hanging off of to begin with. Where else you hurtin'? Besides the arm and that bump on your head?"

"Arm?" Mac frowned in confusion and Jack's last bit of hope that his partner had walked away without a concussion faded away.

"Yeah, your arm's a little banged up, pal," Jack explained gently. "Looks like it took the worst of your fall. But you're lucky you're even alive to tell the tale."

"Oh," Mac took a measured breath and raised his arm slightly as he looked down, wincing at the sight. "Ouch."

"Ouch, it just started hurting because you looked at it?" Jack asked. "Or ouch, something else is wrong and you just noticed it when you moved?"

"Maybe both?" Mac looked back up at him, worry shining in his blue eyes. "It hurt worse when I moved."

"Well then don't move," Jack scolded gently, pulling his shirt sleeve down over his hand to wipe and the blood coursing down Mac's face. "Just sit still, let me see what we're dealin' with."

"Not my arm though," Mac protested. "More my shoulder. Maybe chest. Don't know, but it hurts."

"Okay," Jack sighed, giving up on trying to stop the bleeding from what was, from what he could tell through the steady stream of blood, a fairly minor gash. A couple of stitches and it should be fine, and he couldn't say the same about the rest of his partner's injuries that he hadn't examined, so he chose to move on. "How’s your neck feelin'?" Careful fingers combed their way through Mac's hair, checking for any more places where he could have hit his head. "You shouldn't have popped back up like you did, you're supposed to wait and let me make sure you're okay to move first after taking a tumble like that. Especially knowing you hit your head."

"My neck's fine," Mac assured as Jack's hands systematically moved lower, checking for himself. "I told you, it's my...shoulder!" The last word formed its way into a yelp as Jack's hands landed on the tops of each of his shoulders, just for a moment before pulling away as if he had been burned.

"Sorry, sorry," He held up his hands in an apology, giving Mac a moment to recapture his stolen breath before reaching closer again, eyebrows raised in question as his fingers hovered over the buttons of Mac's shirt, waiting for permission. "Can I check it out?"

"Yeah," Mac breathed, blinking Jack, crouched beside him, back into focus. "Yeah, go ahead."

Jack winced in sympathy as he tugged the fabric away from Mac's shoulder, unable to fold it back completely without irritating the abrasions from where the road had burned through the material of his shirt all the way up his arm. "Well, there's our problem, kiddo." He sighed, staring past the bruising spanning Mac's shoulder and upper chest and focusing on the bump in the usually smooth line of his collar bone. "Guess it wasn't your shoulder after all."

"Really?" Mac's eyebrows shot up in interest, sending the blood that had finally started to slow back to streaming once more. "Clavicle?" Curious fingers reached up to poke at the broken bone.

"Don't go touchin' it!" Jack scolded, intercepting Mac's hand.

"Never broken that one before," Mac explained, intrigue lighting up his eyes brighter than the pain. "Don't know what it feels like."

"It feels like it hurts" Jack rolled his eyes. "You don't need to figure that out the hard way. One little concussion and all those smarts go flyin' right out the window. Kinda like you did back there, huh?."

"Didn't do it on purpose. Lost my balance."

"Wasn't exactly your best idea to start out with, pal." Jack offered a sad smile. "You keep pulling stunts like that and I'm gonna go grey long before my time, you know. And we can't have that. I'm the beauty, you're the brains in this little duo. So you gotta quit scaring me."

"In my defense," Mac smiled back. "You told me not to get shot. Didn't say anything about not falling out the window."

"I told you to be careful. Didn't think I had to elaborate," Jack rolled his eyes. "You hurting anywhere else? Any more breaks you just can't wait to explore? Ribs? Legs?"

"You sound like you're reading the menu of a barbeque joint," Mac scrunched his nose in a laugh. "No, think I'm good. Just sore."

Jack stood up, leaning down to help Mac slowly climb to standing, a hand on his good shoulder and his waist to keep him steady as the ground swayed beneath his feet. "Pretty sure I didn't mess up the truck too bad stopping goon number two. We can probably convince it to hold together till we make it to exfil."

"Exfil, Infirmary, then home," Mac agreed, taking a tentative step and then another, Jack's hands hovering close by.

"Sounds like a plan," Jack nodded. "So long as we fit time in there for you to promise me never to go falling out windows ever again."

"I don't make promises I'm not sure I can keep," Mac grinned.

"Course not," Jack grumbled as they neared the truck. “That’d be too easy. Can’t make anything easy for Jack, have to try and see how many heart attacks you can give him in a single week.”

**Present day**

**Still waiting...**

"It wasn't that bad" Mac rolled his eyes at his partner's dramatics. "I've had way worse."

"I spent that entire plane ride home pickin' gravel and gunk out of your arm and tryin’ my best to keep you awake until we made sure that brain of yours wasn’t too scrambled," Jack pointed out with a raised eyebrow. "And I'll be sure to remind you about that busted collar bone not being that bad next time an op lands us somewhere cold and rainy and it starts bothering you again. Don't think I don't notice, dude. Cause I’ll notice. Every damn time."

"It just flares up sometimes," Mac reached up, moving to rub at the old injury in mention, before catching himself and dropping his hand back down to his lap. "No big deal."

"But if I'd grabbed on to you when I had a chance, we wouldn't have to deal with it at all. Which is why I keep a hand on that belt of yours every time you decide to lean outta window or do something' equally as stupid. Which has saved that ass of yours, literally, more times than either of us would like to admit."

As much as he hated to agree, Jack had a point. Didn't mean he had to admit it out loud though, so instead, Mac grinned. "You know, one of these days I might need to use my belt for something and it won't be there to grab. What are you gonna do then?"

"Yeah right, like you’d ever use something of your own instead of just stealin’ mine. Don't matter though," Jack shook his head, all seriousness, completely ignoring the teasing tone Mac had taken on. "Cause I'll think of somethin'. It’s my job to keep you from falling."


End file.
